this was fwd to me, thought it was funny.. chris > In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters > carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It > was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent > them from rolling about the deck? > The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid > with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on > sixteen. Thus, a supply of thirty cannon balls could be stacked in a small > area right next to the cannon. > There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from > sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate > called a "Monkey" with sixteen round indentations. But, if this plate was > made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the > rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." > Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much > faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped > too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon > balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold > enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" (And all this time, you > thought that was a dirty expression, didn't you?) |
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